The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

Kelly Primus

CEO | Leading NOW | Kelly Primus is a dynamic change maker and expert on Cultural Dynamics in the Workplace, Inclusion, and Leadership Development who understands firsthand the challenges women leaders and underrepresented talent face in their careers. Before becoming CEO of Leading NOW, Kelly was President of its Leading Women division, and prior to that held a successful corporate career where she was often the only woman executive at the table, fueling her passion for Women’s Leadership Development and Inclusion. Kelly’s desire to transform and help organizations change behaviors & company culture to be inclusive for all, make her a sought-after thought leader & speaker on Inclusive Leadership Development, The Missing 33%™, and a myriad of DEI topics. She enjoys sharing her knowledge on how those areas intersect with her expertise as a business person through her blog posts and appearing on business and leadership podcasts.

Posts by Kelly Primus

CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion

Recently, I was asked to present information on “How to Make a Business Case for Gender Diversity” at the 100% Talent Wage Gap Summit in Seattle. Citing research on how increasing the percentage of women in leadership delivers significantly better business results from well-known organization’s like Credit Suisse, McKinsey & Co., Peterson Institute for International Economics, EY, Catalyst, and the Centre for Talent Innovation, I had all the data back-up I needed to make the case for investing in diversity initiatives.
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Closing the Gender Gap Business Imperative Making the Business Case

Great! A Business Imperative. Now what do I do?

In a recent blog, I mentioned a story about a group of 72 companies who have committed to making gender diversity a business imperative, with accountability for it within the senior executive team. This story has caused quite a bit of commotion in social media and we’ve seen a lot of questions popping up in LinkedIn: “How are they planning on preparing the women for leadership?” “What will they do differently?” “How will they identify what needs to be done (so I can emulate it)?
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Gender Dynamics Leadership Breakthrough Leadership Women's Leadership Development Business Imperative Making the Business Case

Making Gender Diversity a Business Imperative?

In an interview on Worldwide Business with kathy ireland® that will be airing this coming weekend, Leading Women’s CEO Susan Colantuono was asked the question: “If you had one piece of advice to give to a CEO, what would it be? She answered, “As a CEO, or as an executive or director for that matter, if women aren’t proportionately represented throughout your organization, you aren’t facing a women’s issue — you’re facing a talent development issue with business implications. And so it’s important to bring your personal commitment and the same level of organizational accountability to that challenge as you would to any business issue.”
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Talent Development Gender Dynamics Leadership Gender Diversity Women's Leadership Development Making the Business Case CEO Advice

Why is everyone STILL talking about Gender Diversity?

Most executives believe the "gender problem" isn't real. And many wonder why we're still talking about it. I recently read two reports on Gender Diversity published by McKinsey& Company: Women in the Workplace 2015, and The CEO’s Guide to Gender Diversity, that illustrate how real it is and why it hasn't been fixed.
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Closing the Gender Gap Gender Dynamics Leadership Gender Bias

What is Your Company Planning to do for Millennials?

The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Study is out - and Leading Women's research is in and neither is great news for companies without a leadership development program for their Millennial women: Deloitte research says: “This year’s survey shows that women are equally likely as men to rate 'opportunities for career progression and leadership roles' as a major factor for staying at or leaving a job.” “Millennials want to work for organizations that have a purpose beyond profit, and they want those organizations to provide opportunities to develop leadership skills. These may be the two most important factors in creating job satisfaction and long-term loyalty, especially among Millennial women.” “This year’s survey shows women (67 percent) are slightly more likely than men (64 percent) to leave their employers within the next five years. One reason could be that 48 percent of female respondents say they are 'being overlooked for potential leadership positions.'”
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Talent Development Gender Dynamics Career Millennials

Unconscious Bias at the Office – Does Your Company Have a Plan?

Recently I read an article about Fortune Magazine’s Pattie Sellers moderating a discussion with execs from Facebook, Coca-Cola and FCB Worldwide on how their companies were attacking the problem of unconscious bias. When referring to unconscious bias, Maxine Williams, global director of diversity at Facebook spoke about “a problem that, as increasing numbers of companies are realizing, prevents them from improving their workforce diversity and typically interferes with the productivity of their employees.” When Seller asked the audience of 200 executives whether they had unconscious bias training programs within their company, only a dozen raised their hands. When asked how many would like to have a program, practically the entire room raised their hands. Huh. If unconscious bias is as big a problem as it seems, why don’t more companies have a plan to deal with it?
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Closing the Gender Gap Gender Dynamics Managers Mindsets Gender Bias

TED.com Featuring Susan Colantuono's Talk on Closing The Leadership Gender Gap

Millions of Views
1 min read | Kelly Primus
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Closing the Gender Gap The Missing 33%® Leadership Career TED

9 Reasons Companies Aren't Closing The Leadership Gender Gap

Last week we released our updated research entitled “Closing The Leadership Gender Gap: The Missing 33%® and Conventional Advice to Women.”
1 min read | Kelly Primus
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Talent Development Closing the Gender Gap The Missing 33%® Diversity & Inclusion